IELTS Simon

IELTS Speaking Part 3: think in terms of paragraphs

In part 3 of the speaking test you should try to give longer, detailed answers. A good way to do this is to imagine that you are making a paragraph.

Remember the 'paragraph building' techniques that we use in writing task 2:

Idea, explain, example
Start with a direct answer to the question, like the 'topic sentence' in a written paragraph. Then explain your answer in more detail, and support your explanation with an example.

Try answering this question: Do you think that it's important for people to celebrate their achievements?

Firstly, secondly, finally
Start with the direct answer, then explain it by giving two or three reasons, and maybe an example too.

Try answering this question: Why do you think some people prefer not to tell others about their achievements?

IELTS Writing Task 1: mistakes in an easy sentence

Last week, I asked you to try writing three sentences about a graph. The first sentence should have been very easy:

• In 2008, around 8 million children played football.

But several people made mistakes because they tried to make this sentence more complicated. Can you identify the mistakes below?

1. Nearly 8 million children have participated in the football game in 2008.
2. The number of children attending in football match were approximately 7.5 million in 2008.
3. In 2008, nearly 8 million children had participated in the football game.
4. The glance of the graph reveals that number of children who prefer football was approximately 7.6 millions.
5. In 2008, football was by far the highest number of teenage participants, with over 8 million.

Tip: You need to be able to write a simple sentence that describes one number without making any mistakes! Work on this before you try anything more complicated.

IELTS Writing Task 2: from plan to paragraph

Here's my plan for a 5-sentence paragraph about the negatives or dangers of artificial intelligence:

1. Topic sentence: I share concerns about potential harm
2. Idea 1: Short term rise in unemployment as workers are replaced
3. Example: Self-driving vehicles replace driving jobs
4. Idea 2: Medium term effect, humans lose skills and purpose
5. Idea 3: Long term worry, computers take over and make decisions

Here's my 5-sentence paragraph. Notice how I refer to short, medium and long term effects.

I share the concerns of people who believe that artificial intelligence may harm us if we are not careful. In the short term, it is likely that we will see a rise in unemployment as workers in various industries are replaced by machines or software programs. For example, self-driving vehicles are expected to cause redundancies in driving jobs, such as lorry drivers, taxi drivers and bus drivers. In the medium term, if intelligent technologies gradually take jobs away from humans, we may find that people become deskilled and lose their sense of purpose in life. A longer term fear is that computers become so intelligent that they begin to make decisions without human oversight and without regard for our well-being.

IELTS Listening: quick checklist

If you've watched my free video lessons for listening (here and here), you should be able to answer the following checklist of questions.

1. How many questions and sections are there in the listening test?
2. What are the three main types of question? Have you practised them?
3. When are the breaks in the recording?
4. What two things should you do during the breaks?
5. Which section has no break in the middle?
6. Are you working on your spelling?
7. Should you spend more time practising section 1 or section 4?
8. What similarities are there between IELTS listening and reading?
9. What should you do if you find one question really difficult?

IELTS Reading: fill the gaps

Read the following passage about nocturnal animals.

Nocturnality is an animal behaviour characterised by activity during the night and sleep during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus its opposite “diurnal”.

Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed senses of hearing and smell, and specially adapted eyesight. Such traits can help animals such as the Helicoverpa zea moth to avoid predators. Some animals, such as cats and ferrets, have eyes that can adapt to both low-level and bright day levels of illumination. Others, such as bushbabies and some bats, can function only at night. Many nocturnal creatures, including most owls, have large eyes in comparison with their body size to compensate for the lower light levels at night.

Being active at night is a form of niche differentiation, where a species' niche is partitioned not by the amount of resources but by time (i.e. temporal division of the ecological niche). For example, hawks and owls can hunt the same field or meadow for the same rodents without conflict because hawks are diurnal and owls are nocturnal.

Fill the gaps in the summary using words from the list below it.

Nocturnal animals sleep during the daytime, whereas ______ animals are awake during the day and they ______ at night. Animals that are active at night tend to have ______ hearing and smell, and they may have ______ eyesight. Nocturnality allows animals to hunt for prey without having to ______ with predators that are active during daylight hours.

most, sensitive, asleep, conflict, diurnal, compete, exceptional, sleep

The purpose of this blog

Taking a week off work gave me some time to think about the purpose of my work, who it's for, and where it might go in the future. Here's a quick summary of some of my thoughts.

I think I have two main aims:

1. To demystify the IELTS test by breaking it down into smaller parts, and by providing a methodical approach to each part.
2. To help people to improve their English by providing lots of language input, and by being a good 'model' of the language.

I think this website is for people who are serious about improving their English as they prepare for the IELTS test. It probably isn't the right website for people who are trying to 'game' the exam using shortcuts, big words or memorised phrases.

I've been blogging about IELTS almost every day for the last 9 years. While I can't say for sure that I'll be able to keep going for another 9 years, I am sure that I'll still be teaching English and IELTS, and I'll still be writing and creating lessons.

IELTS Vocabulary: range and flexibility

If you take lessons with an English teacher, I recommend that you ask yourself this question at the end of each lesson:

Did I learn some new language in this lesson, or did I become better at using some language that I already knew?

In other words, you are asking yourself whether you worked on your vocabulary range (new words and phrases) or on your flexibility (becoming better at using the language that you already knew).

Note: examiners are looking for range and flexibility when they assess your vocabulary in the writing and speaking tests.

IELTS Speaking: two pronunciation tips

Here are two tips regarding pronunciation.

1) Improving your pronunciation score in the speaking test

This is an exercise that you could do maybe once a week: Try recording yourself as you answer some IELTS speaking questions, then listen to the recording and analyse just one feature of pronunciation. For example, you could focus on intonation: Did your voice sound flat and boring, or did you manage to show interest and enthusiasm? If possible, ask a native speaker to give the same answers, and listen to the rising and falling of his or her voice. Try to copy that intonation.

You could do a similar thing for other aspects of pronunciation e.g. individual sounds, word stress, connected speech and sentence stress.

2) The importance of pronunciation in language learning

In my opinion, pronunciation is perhaps the most overlooked 'secret' to learning a new language. As a serious language student, you'll learn to recognise and produce sounds that don't exist in your own language. You'll try to copy the connected speech, word stress, sentence stress and intonation patterns that native speakers use.

And as you become better at doing these things, the language starts to open up and welcome you in. Your listening skills improve, you find it easier to chat to native speakers, and your repertoire of phrases grows effortlessly. The best language learners (children) all know this secret!

IELTS Writing Task 1: back to basics

If you're preparing for IELTS writing task 1 (academic), here are three basic skills that you need to work on:

1. Write a sentence about one particular number.
2. Write a sentence that compares two numbers.
3. Write a sentence that describes a change.

For example, can you create three sentences using the information that I've highlighted on the line graph below?
nn

nn

IELTS Writing Task 2: essay 'skeleton'

Do you remember the idea of the essay skeleton? I've written a 'skeleton' for the artificial intelligence question below.

Some people believe that developments in the field of artificial intelligence will have a positive impact on our lives in the near future. Others, by contrast, are worried that we are not prepared for a world in which computers are more intelligent than humans. Discuss both of these views and give your own opinion.

Introduction
People seem to be either excited or worried about the future impact of artificial intelligence. Personally I can understand the two opposing points of view; I am both fascinated by developments in artificial intelligence and apprehensive about its possible negative effects.

Topic sentence, paragraph 2
On the one hand, the increasing intelligence of technology should bring some obvious benefits.

Topic sentence, paragraph 3
On the other hand, I share the concerns of people who believe that artificial intelligence may harm us if we are not careful.

Conclusion
In conclusion, while intelligent machines will no doubt improve our lives in many ways, the potential risks of such technologies should not be ignored.

Remember:
The essay 'skeleton' should make sense on its own, providing the reader with a summary of your answer. The only thing missing is a detailed explanation after each main paragraph topic sentence.

Tip:
Practise writing your own essay skeletons, and your essay coherence will improve.

Back to work!

I'm back at work today, and feeling fully refreshed. I'll publish today's lesson a bit later, after I've caught up on some other work.

Thanks to those of you who left positive messages for me during my week off!

Message from Simon: one week off

After a hectic year of work and personal commitments, I feel that I'm not working at my best at the moment. I don't want to burn out completely and lose motivation, so I think the only solution is to take a short break.

I'm going to stop blogging and answering emails for the next seven days. My ebook and video course will still be available, and I'll be back to normal next Wednesday (21st November). I'm sorry if you were waiting for a lesson today!

IELTS Listening: multiple choice and short answers

Listen to the recording and answer the questions below.

Click here to listen

1. Which three things are affected by population growth?

A) environment, housing and architecture
B) jobs, housing and infrastructure
C) jobs, transport and culture

2. What happens every 3 minutes in Australia?

A) one person dies
B) one person is born
C) one person leaves the country

3. What proportion of Australians were born abroad?

4. From which two countries do most immigrants come?

IELTS Reading: paragraph heading

Read the following paragraph about the inventor Thomas Edison.

Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications.

Choose the best heading for the paragraph from the list below.

A) The creator of the first industrial research laboratory.
B) A pioneering and prolific inventor.
C) Edison’s contribution to mass communication.

IELTS Advice: 'deep' answers

Unfortunately, many candidates give shallow answers in their IELTS speaking and writing tests. They mention a few different ideas, but fail to develop any of them in detail. They would get higher scores if they just took one idea and developed it in detail; this is what I call a deep answer.

Practise explaining just one idea in as much detail as you can. The ability to do this could really benefit your speaking and writing scores.

IELTS Advice: don't forget the easy words!

One thing I noticed as an examiner is that many students forget to use simple words like "and" or "but". At the same time, they overuse words like "moreover" and "furthermore".

Native speakers use "and" all the time (in both speech and writing). You can use "and" or "but" as many times as you want; the examiner will not notice!

On the other hand, if you use "moreover" or "furthermore" more than once, the examiner will notice straight away. These words do not get you a high score. In fact, in the speaking exam, they make your English sound 'forced'.

IELTS Speaking: paraphrasing examples

Here are some easy examples of paraphrasing, using five sentences from last Friday's speaking lesson:

1. I was never much of a singer =
   I didn't really like singing when I was younger
2. I was always a little shy =
   As a child I wasn't very outgoing
3. This happens once a week or less =
   I do this perhaps once every week* at most
4. I prefer to listen to a variety of music =
   I like all kinds of music
5. Singing contests are hugely popular at the moment =
   Singing competitions seem to be all the rage**

* We could write "every 7 days", but this sounds a little less natural
** all the rage = an idiomatic expression meaning "very popular"

IELTS Writing Task 1: lists and list sentences

Examiners don't like lists. For example, look at the following description:

• In 2005, 50% of the population went on holiday abroad. In 2010, 60% of people travelled abroad on holiday. In 2015, 70% of residents went abroad on vacation.

Here you have three simple sentences with the same basic word order, the same subject-verb relationship, and with the year and percentage in the same position. As a result, the description seems a bit like a list.

The list sentences that I showed you in last week's lesson do not create the same problem. There's nothing wrong with listing three different figures within the same sentence. This is just one way to compare figures.

Tip: Examiners like variety. So if you've written a list sentence, don't write another one straight after it.

IELTS Writing Task 2: 'artificial intelligence' plan

Here's my essay plan for the artificial intelligence question that I showed you in last week's lesson:

Note:
This is the kind of clear, simple plan that you could aim to write in your test. Give yourself 10 minutes, and I think you could produce a plan like this one (if you've done enough planning practice).

IELTS Listening: 'multiple choice' advice

Most people find multiple choice sections difficult. If you want to improve your scores on these sections, here's the key skill that I think you should work on:

Identifying differences

If you can't see a clear difference in meaning between each of the choices (e.g. answers A, B and C), you'll be lost before the recording even starts.

Try this exercise:

1. Take a multiple choice section from one of the listening tests in the official Cambridge IELTS books.
2. Spend some time reading the answer choices for each question.
3. Try to identify a clear difference between each choice.
4. Underline one or two key words in each choice. Choose words that highlight the differences that you identified.
5. Make sure that you have found and underlined clear differences, so that you know exactly what to listen for.

Note: The exercise above involves no listening practice. Identifying differences is about reading and understanding.

IELTS Reading: 3 study tips

Here are 3 study tips to help you improve your reading:

1. The best way to get better at the reading test is by doing more reading. Do as many practice tests as you can, and read other things e.g. books, newspapers and online articles.
2. Try doing a reading test without a time limit, and with a dictionary. If you still can't get the score you need, you'll need to look carefully at what you are doing wrong.
3. Spend time analysing your mistakes and the correct answers. If you don't understand why an answer was right or wrong, ask a teacher to help you. You'll improve more quickly if you learn from your mistakes.

IELTS Vocabulary: paraphrasing practice

Paraphrasing = expressing the same idea in a different way.

Here are some phrases from Friday's speaking lesson. Can you find a different way to express each idea?

1. I was never much of a singer.
2. I was always a little shy.
3. This happens once a week or less.
4. I prefer to listen to a variety of music.
5. Singing contests are hugely popular at the moment.

IELTS Grammar: subject + verb

Question: Which of the following is a correct sentence?

1. Learning a foreign language.
2. Firstly, learning a foreign language in order to improve your career prospects.
3. For example, learning a foreign language by living in a country where that language is spoken, and communicating with native speakers on a daily basis.

Answer: None of these are correct sentences. None of them has a main verb.

To make a sentence, you need a subject (noun/noun phrase) and a verb:

1. I am learning a foreign language. OR, Learning a foreign language is useful.
2. Firstly, many people learn a foreign language in order to improve their career prospects.
3. For example, some people learn a foreign language by living in a country where that language is spoken and communicating with native speakers on a daily basis.

Some students really need to work on writing correct "subject + verb" sentences. Missing the verb in a sentence is a serious mistake that will definitely affect your score.

IELTS Speaking Part 1: 'singing' answers

Here are my sample answers to the 'singing' questions that I shared last week. Remember: there's no need to show off in part 1. It's more important to demonstrate your fluency at this stage. Try to give short, simple answers without too much hesitation.

1. Did you enjoy singing when you were younger?

No, I was never much of a singer. I remember that I was always a little shy and embarrassed when it came to singing in front of others.

2. How often do you sing now?

I don't sing in public, but I do sometimes find myself singing along to songs if I'm listening to music in the car. Perhaps this happens once a week or less.

3. Do you have a favourite song you like listening to?

No, not at the moment. I used to have favourite songs when I was a teenager - when I was discovering new music - but these days I prefer to listen to a variety of music, rather than a particular favourite tune.

4. How important is singing in your culture?

It seems to be really important these days. TV programmes like 'X Factor', which are basically singing contests, are hugely popular at the moment. So many young people dream of being famous singers.

IELTS Writing Task 1: 'list' sentences

One easy way to describe the information on a graph or chart is by writing a sentence that lists three related figures. For example:

• In school A, 30% of students chose to study languages, 40% selected an art or music course, and 50% chose a science option.
• In the year 2010, over 5 million people bought product A, around 7 million bought product B, and nearly 10 million consumers purchased product C.

Notice that I tried to vary the vocabulary in each list:

chose = selected, course = option, people = consumers, bought = purchased